Friday, September 6, 2013

Interesting Happenings with the 2012 Barney Heritage SSP

It's been a year and a half since it came out, but I still keep tabs on..

...the 2012 Heritage Darwin Barney SSP No Position card. There have been some interesting things with the card over the last couple months.

First, the price of the card is dropping. After going for nearly $100 for a year, it now seems like no one wants or needs the card and the price has plummeted into the $30 range.

Apparently, one seller wasn't happy about the plunge. Ebay user "fully.loaded14" first listed the card on May 5 with an opening bid of $99.99 and a BIN of $300. Seems a bit greedy and no one bid on the listing. The card was relisted at an opening bid of $49.99 and again, no bids. Finally, the card came up with a $0.99 starting bid and this time there was action. Eight bids were placed and the winner got the card for $32.99--a real bargain.

Not really. fully.loaded14 never sent the card and the buyer left negative feedback and the following comment: "LYING DEADBEAT!!! HAD TO FILE CASE TO GET REFUND!!! PATHETIC LOSER!!!" It stinks when a buyer thinks they are getting a good deal but all they get is a hassle.

Here's more evidence of the price dropping / market drying up: Poor seller wdpolicky316 has been trying to sell the card since mid-May. Their first listing had a BIN of $129 and no takers. Then it was relisted with a BIN of $70, and when it went untouched, the BIN dropped to $65--still too high. Next it was an action starting at $39.99 and a BIN of $59.99---no bids. Right now its relisted with an opening price of $29.99 and a $49.99 BIN. Maybe the fifth time is the charm for wdpolicky316.

The other recent oddity with the Barney card is that for the first time, it was resold by someone that had purchased it earlier. The buyer/seller was howyadoin_784, who bought the card in July of 2012 for $103.27, which was around the average price the card was going for back then. Poor old howyadoin_784 took a beating when selling the card this August. The card sold for $33.33--a $70 loss. Ouch!

But I can tie the story all together now with some good news. The person that bought the card at the bargain price of $33.33 was the same buyer that got stiffed by fully.loaded14! And this time he got the card and left positive feedback.

So alls well that ends well, unless you think you can make some money selling this card.

3 comments:

Castro's been hitting well as of late, but Darwin has been even worse. There seems to be nothing hopeful in his stats-just consistent across all measures. Do you think Jed and Theo will stick with Darwin or look to move him maybe as part of a package over the winter?

I think the most interesting part is that there are still some floating around for sale and the sellers are adjusting prices. I'm monitoring the Wood/Aramis SP and I've only seen the same one for months. A graded version with a BIN of $60. Don't know if I'd buy a raw one for $30, though, so I'm probably out of luck altogether.--Jon

About Me

I am a life-long Cubs fan currently in exile in southern Michigan. I have been collecting baseball cards since the fateful Cubs year of 1969. I took a 15 year break from the hobby and returned in 2008.